1/35 Fiat 3000 (early Italian tank)

This is one of my recently-completed AFV models (the other two are a 1/35 Befehlspanzer I and
a 1/76 Panzerhaubitze 2000; I’ll post some photos of these some time in the future, hopefully).
It’s the first Italian-built tank (according to the box description) and is basically a modified French
Renault FT.17 with a new engine (hence the different rear hull shape) and twin-MG armament.
The Fiat 3000 was mainly in service during the 1920s and 30s, but a few were still in use (presumably as training
vehicles) during WW2.


The model is built from the Tauro kit, which IMHO is very poor (and I’m normally a very forgiving modeller). Fit is atrocious, there’s loads of flash, and the vinyl tracks are about 1.5cm too short (I had to lengthen them with a large staple; thankfully the gap is mostly hidden by the suspension).
It’s the only Fiat 3000 kit there is though, and after painting still looks pretty impressive (at least, as impressive as a FT.17 variant can look :stuck_out_tongue: )

Tauro also make a 1/35 kit for the German Sturmpanzerwagen A7V (WW1 tank) - is this similar
in quality (or lack of it) to the Fiat? I’m interested to know from anyone here who’s built one.

I’ve built both. The Fiat tracks gave me a headache.

The A7V has these individual vinyl links that are a pain to assemble. You have to drill a hole in each link and slide this tiny metal pin in. They break easily at the join and you can only make about a 10 link section before the run gets to be too fragile to handle. Fortunately, you only need to do the run along the bottom. The top run is completely hidden by the tank.

[:D]the kit looks cool,nice work.[:D]

Nice looking little tank!
I like the dusting…

Looks good! The company RPM makes a few FT17s and have a lot of detail as well as PE too and these are Renault versions.

Thanks for the info.
I’ll keep that in mind if I ever see an A7V for sale - I don’t mind independent tracks, but independent VINYL tracks
which are prone to snapping - doesn’t sound good!

I’ve often seen RPM’s kits for sale, they are a bit out of my price range but I’ll keep a look out for them second-hand!

Great job on the build. Bryan